Travel Day 1091 – Bangkok to Phetchaburi to Hua Hin, THAILAND
It was about time to finally leave Bangkok and since I was heading towards Surat Thani, I intended to make at least a few stops along the way…
Wat Kampang Lang in Phetchaburi
Initially I meant to leave Bangkok already a couple of days ago in order to have enough time for a few Daycation days while seeing some water and a beach, but then I ended up doing so many things in Bangkok that one day after the other simply passed by and I still hadn’t left the city. The other issue was that nobody could actually give me a definitive train schedule and I could never be bothered to go all the way to the station just to get a reliable answer…
So this morning I just took my chances and checked out of my hostel at around 9am. While sharing a taxi with two fellow travelers, I luckily made it just in time to the station to get a ticket and hop on the local train south that left at 9.20am. Three hours later found me walking on the sweaty streets of Phetchaburi. It was seriously a lot more humid than it had been in Bangkok and the sun was even partially breaking through the clouds which made my afternoon exploration walk while carrying my backpack a little less enjoyable than initially anticipated…
Wat Yai Suwannaram in Phetchaburi
It was also quite surprising to me how big Phetchaburi actually was and how spread out the temples were. Judging from my map it should have been an easy afternoon stroll, but considering the heat and the fact that a lot of temples were situated on a hilltop, I decided to rather focus on less and in this case the temples in the town itself. So the suggested walking tour in my guide-book was supposed to take me along all the temple highlights of Phetburi and Wat Yai Suwannaram happened to be the first on my tour…
While all the temples in Bangkok looked pretty much exactly the same to me, here the old part of Wat Yai Suwannaram was built mostly out of teak wood and its main floor was elevated above the ground. Wooden stilts were raising the entire wat to a height where access was only possible with a flight of stairs. The temple itself was dating back to the 17th century while the gash on the front doors was apparently testimony to a Burmese attack during the Ayutthaya period…
Wat Mahathat in Phetchaburi, Thailand
The next noteworthy temple along the way was Wat Mahathat with its five-tiered Khmer style prang which could be seen from far away as it was towering high above all other roofs. Wat Mahathat was said to house some relics of the Buddha and was thus an important and sacred place within Thailand. But for me personally the temple that interested me the most out of all the many I had seen along the way, was definitely the historic site of Wat Kampang Lang…
Consisting of the ruins of four Khmer prang that were possibly dating back to the 12th century, Wat Kampang Lang had originally been a Hindu site before it got converted into a Buddhist temple. Reminding slightly of the grand temples of Angkor Wat, this place was definitely a whole lot smaller, but still a very nice place to visit and a welcome change after all the other Thai temples in town. Overall it had definitely been a very nice and interesting visit to Phetchaburi…
Find all Phetchaburi Photos here.
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